Your Right to Know

The Ohio State University marching band visited the Ohio House yesterday, entertaining lawmakers
before a vote without opposition to make
Hang on Sloopy the official state rock song.

“I think we have a real treat for everyone today,” Rep. Cheryl Grossman, R-Grove City, told the
chamber. A moment later, a whistle blew outside the front doors, the drums began and about three
dozen band members marched into the House.

The band played the Ohio State fight song, and followed up with
Sloopy. Lawmakers stood, clapped and ignored chamber rules by taking video of the
show.

The Ohio State band first performed
Hang on Sloopy in 1965, and it has since become a staple at games and other
appearances.

Grossman co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Michael Stinziano, D-Columbus, whose father, Mike,
teamed with the late Columbus Sen. Gene Watts in 1985 to pass a resolution making
Sloopy the official state rock song. But, Stinziano said, it was never officially placed
into law alongside the state’s other official symbols.

“We are trying to put
Hang on Sloopy in its rightful place,” he said, noting the song’s Ohio connections.

It was first recorded as
My Sloopy Girl by the Vibrations in 1964, but a group known as the McCoys from the Dayton
area recorded its version in 1965 and it became a hit. The subject of the song, Stinziano said, was
reportedly singer Dorothy Sloop of Steubenville.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

Grossman also presented a resolution to George Edge, band director at Grove City High School,
who was named the 2014 Music Educator of the Year by the Ohio Music Education Association. She also
recognized Jim Swearingen, a music-education professor at Capital University, who received the 2014
Distinguished Service Award from the Music Education Association.